Building a Bot in a Day at NIBC’s RPA Hackathon

March 29, 2019

How Ciphix delivered a smart, scalable software bot in less than 24 hours.

Speed is central when it comes to RPA. In addition to robots that operate with extreme efficiency, organizations are seeking swiftly deployed solutions that deliver rapid return on investment. At NIBC Innovation Lab’s “RPA in a Day” Hackathon, Ciphix had the opportunity to show just how quickly automation can begin. In fact, we were able to prove that, with the right tools and strategies in place, teams can create a value-adding digital workforce in a matter of hours.

NIBC Innovation Lab is a branch of NIBC Bank dedicated to fostering technological advancements within their organization and through their many partnerships. NIBC emphasizes bold, creative problem-solving, and is particularly interested in the fields of RPA and AI – so it’s no wonder we were thrilled to be invited to participate in their recent hackathon. Ciphix was presented with an exciting challenge: to to build an RPA solution in only 24 hours. In addition to being delivered quickly, the bots would need to be demonstrably effective in solving a specific, real-world business problem.

Lunch Kick-off

NIBC provided us with the process to be automated and started the clock. Like many of the tasks we help our clients streamline at Ciphix, the assigned process involved important but repetitive work that requires little to no human involvement. Through a close analysis of the “as-is” state, our team identified a prime opportunity to increase efficiency and accuracy through RPA.

We used our existing framework and prefabricated custom activities, in combination with UiPath’s powerful tools, to build a software robot capable of gathering reports from a variety of sources. Unburdened of this data collection, the bank’s employees would be free to spend their time on more interesting and higher-value work. This scalable RPA, if implemented, would have the potential to benefit many departments and individuals throughout the company.

Night work

Having begun at 1:30 pm, the Ciphix team completed the challenge by nighttime. The next day at breakfast, we presented a PoC video demonstrating our bot’s capabilities. This accomplishment reflects one of our core values at Ciphix: to get right down to showing, not just telling, what our team and robots can do. As NIBC put it, “Ciphix demonstrated that [building RPA in a day] is certainly possible! Talking about doing something and actually doing it are two different things.” We’re honored to have joined NIBC and the hackathon other participants in this rewarding challenge, and look forward to more events like this one.